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Science

FDA Approves Genetically Engineered Pigs (theverge.com) 76

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved genetically engineered pigs for use in food and medical products. The pigs, developed by medical company Revivicor, could be used in the production of drugs, to provide organs and tissues for transplants, and to produce meat that's safe to eat for people with meat allergies. From a report: "Today's first-ever approval of an animal biotechnology product for both food and as a potential source for biomedical use represents a tremendous milestone for scientific innovation," said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn in a press release. The pigs are called GalSafe pigs because they lack a molecule called alpha-gal sugar, which can trigger allergic reactions. Alpha-gal sugar is found in many mammals, but not usually in humans. Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), which causes a serious meat allergy, can happen after a bite from a lone star or deer tick. Though it hasn't been tested specifically for people with AGS yet, the FDA has determined GalSafe pork products are safe for the general population to eat. In addition to their potential for safer consumption, there are several potential medical uses for GalSafe pigs. They could be used to make drugs like heparin, a common blood-thinner derived from animal tissue, safer for people with AGS.
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FDA Approves Genetically Engineered Pigs

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  • Obvious Family Guy (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dirk Becher ( 1061828 ) on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @12:32PM (#60833810)

    https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_vi... [twimg.com]

  • those few with AGS can just avoid mammal meat, no reason to create a pig for them

    • I suppose they can also avoid all medicines derived in part from animals too right? Let them eat vegan cake sounds like a message bound for a positive reception.

    • Agreed.

      I suspect this isn't really about "helping" out those with AGS, but rather baby steps to approving more GMO creatures into the US food chain to increase profits. The medicine part is a bonu$.

      • Re:what nonsense (Score:4, Insightful)

        by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @01:00PM (#60833952)
        There is nothing wrong about the genetically modified part as long as it’s been tested such that the changes are all known. The externalities are what is far more important. With roundup ready plants it’s the overuse of glyphosphate and related IP issues, nothing about the modification itself makes it dangerous. We would have quite a few more issues with starvation on this planet if we abandoned all genetic research in crops because some people who are ignorant of the science get scared and try to impose ill founded fears on others.

        • Re:what nonsense (Score:5, Interesting)

          by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @01:21PM (#60834042)

          With roundup ready plants it’s the overuse of glyphosphate

          It isn't that simple. Before RR GMO, harsher herbicides were often used to prepare for planting by killing weeds in the seed stage. With RR, farmers can wait and kill weed seedlings because the crop seedlings can tolerate the herbicide. This allows no-till farming that reduces erosion and lowers fuel consumption. RR is a net win for the environment.

          and related IP issues

          This is no longer an issue. All the RR patents have expired. The seeds are now in the public domain.

          • Yea, that’s a responsible way to do it and GMO tend to help the environment if anything - greater yields with GMO all else being equal also helps the environment. My point wasn’t to criticize farmers but rather show that valid main problems with GMO don’t revolve around the modification itself and I only used the RR example because that’s what most people are familiar with.
          • One negative aspect I read about, is that the plants can survive way greater levels of pesticides/herbicides that are legally not restricted because levels that would be bad for human consumption were known to be above levels that the plants could take. Until they got modified to withstand much more. Which has it effing up on our plates.
            • pesticide approvals (like that for Roundup) have minimum effective and maximum allowed dose rates. The later is explicitly determined based on toxicological analysis in surrogate species with the aim to provide a margin of safety between the max allowed dose rate and the minimum unsafe dose. usually the margin of safety is some multiple of the max dose rate (2x, 3x, 10x, etc.) to ensure that even if everythign goes wrong in a dramatic way, the food will still be safe to consume

              https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.
          • If the patents have expired, how do you explaint this 7.7 billion dollar judgement in favor of monsanto? https://theconversation.com/mo... [theconversation.com]

        • I made no implication that GMO is intrinsically wrong/bad; just that the patents, lawyers, and corporate greed that come along with gene "discoveries/manipulations" are the real problem, e.g. Monsanto with RoundUp Ready, Myriad Genetics and brca1 (breast cancer) etc. RoundUp Ready crops let farmers work easier, and "yes" coupled with the over use of phosphate fertilizers this lead to higher yields. The world has enough yield to feed itself with limited use of RoundUp and the like; the real problem is food

          • Wait until the major pork slaughter houses demand the farmers use the GMO pig and all the piglets belong to Revivicor, but for an extra fee you can raise and sell them.

            Member of the US animal production industry here... This will not happen unless consumers are welcoming to this technology with open arms

            We have seen how customers have lost their absolute shit over GMO corn and soy, despite the benefits to consumers in terms of cost, improved soil preservation (no till farming) and the spotless track record for consumer safety. We have also seen past attempts at GM pigs spend decades in regulatory limbo before the Gene Engineered animals ultimately all being euthanized an

      • As someone who has had AGS, it sounds like a good idea to me. If this is nonsense, give me more of it.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      those few with AGS can just avoid mammal meat, no reason to create a pig for them

      As someone who has multiple relatives with AGS (either currently or previously), that's easier said than done. Cross-contamination in restaurants is hard to avoid. Think how hard it is for people with peanut allergies, and imagine allergies that are triggered by exposure to not just beef, pork, lamb, deer, etc., but also things like milk, cream, cheese, gelatin, etc.

      • Re: (Score:1, Redundant)

        by iggymanz ( 596061 )

        Your relatives can go to restaurants without a mammal in sight. Poultry and seafood places. Or avoid restaurants for social activity and have parties instead. One thing is for sure, no restaurant will be serving this franken-pig for a long time. Can't imagine a restaurant only serving it.

        • One thing is for sure, no restaurant will be serving this franken-pig for a long time.

          Why not? There are no labeling requirements. Restaurants already serve plenty of GMO foods and customers don't seem to care.

          • One answer is, higher cost due to royalties, that's why not. But another answer is that humans lacking ability to deal with the carb are going to have other health problems and system failures in the body, it's not that they'll just have allergy to mammal meat. Any animal without the a-gal or means to deal with it I'd suspect of being fundamentally unhealthy, hence my nickname franken-pig. Maybe has to be a pig because can't even live to adulthood.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          Your relatives can go to restaurants without a mammal in sight. Poultry and seafood places.

          Show me a seafood restaurant without clarified butter. Man cannot live on KFC alone. :-D

          Or avoid restaurants for social activity and have parties instead. One thing is for sure, no restaurant will be serving this franken-pig for a long time. Can't imagine a restaurant only serving it.

          Depends on where you are. If you're in Kentucky, where in some communities, up to 20% of the population has an alpha gal allergy, unless they cost a lot more than regular pigs, I'd expect these to displace alpha-gal-positive pigs just about as quickly as they can get them to market.

          • Inbreeding in eastern Kentucky is higher than any part of the state and much higher than norm in USA. just sayin'...

        • So you don't care at all about animals? Only the cute and cuddly ones that allow you to signat virtue by jerking tears. So it's purely an ego thing. It's actually only about you.

          Otherwise you would not eat octopus (a smart animal) or rotifers (a kind of snail) or water bears (not bears) or nematodes (a type of worm that is literally *everywhere*).

          • What are you blathering about, humans and their ancestors eating animals for over a million years. How is eating this genetically modified animal any different from normal pig?

            Put your animal rights shit in some thread where it's relevant.

    • Profit is not nonsense and humans are omnivores. Developing custom foodbeasts and medibeasts is useful research and when, not it, it converges with lab-grown meat we can have custom flesh for any purpose without the extra effort of raising livestock.

      • Profit is indeed not nonsense. It is the part of the money somebody took, that he gave nothing back for. Because he could make you give it to him.
        That's robbery.

        Profit for profit's sake is nonsense though. Unfortunately, that is the usual kind.
        Unfortunately ... for your argument.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by b3e3 ( 6069888 )
      It's an easy way to spread the costs, though; they're talking about raising thousands of them as meat animals, instead of just a few dozen as tissue/warfarin donors.

  • Can we get some square pigs [imgur.com] like on Space Truckers [rottentomatoes.com]? Or did I totally misread this and we're talking about a new type of super cop [fandom.com]?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      They won't fit in test tubes, which have round holes.

      • That's would be a very large test tube or a very small pig. How many water bears [wikipedia.org] does it take to make a quarter pound patty?

        • Fun fact:
          1. Water bears are animals. As are rotifers and nematodes.
          2. Those animals are *everywhere*. Eating them is unavoidable.
          3. Hence, vegans eat those animals.
          4. Vegans say they care about animals.
          5. They do not care about those animals.
          Conclusion: They aren't caring about animals in general. Only about the tear-jerking and virtue signaling.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Get ready for franken-swine and chlorinated chicken ya filthy limeys

    • Like GMO crops, they won't get many sales here.
      The USA can keep its Chlorinated Chicken, Hormone laden Beef and these pigs.

  • Your hands get rough working with pigs. (Score:4, Funny)

    by jddj ( 1085169 ) on Tuesday December 15, 2020 @01:15PM (#60834010) Journal

    I recommend you you put on some oinkment.

  • I'm going to need some baby back ribs before forming an opinion. None of that syrupy bbq sauce either, a nice savory sauce. While on the subject modern pork is almost too lean now. Absolutely no fat so it dries out and becomes tough.

  • Reminds, me of one of those comics. I wonder what the Pigs have to say about being used in such a way? Well, let us hope they are handled in a Humanly way por da least.
  • So if you have AGS you should eat humans because they won't cause an allergic reaction

    • Long pig will cause nice prion diseases though. Just ask the Polynesians.

    • a person with AGS is going to have other problems in the body, including system failures over time like kidneys, vision, hearing. I'd worry about a pig with body without the a-gal and ability to handle it, might be fundamentally unhealthy.

  • Genetically engineered... to have wings!
  • Welcome our genetically engineered pig overlords.

  • We'll be getting that famous egg-laying-wool-mil-pig.

  • Step 1. Obtain FDA approval. Step 2. Engineer sligs. Step 3. ? Step 4. Bene Tleilax dominance of the known universe, as god intended.

  • Keep your horrible abominations, and may you waste away on them!

  • Of course, they are needed to make our streets safer and fight crime!
  • Who owns the genetic code for these piggies and if one of them accidentally mates with my pig, what happens, who owns the offsring, and am I in trouble?

  • Leave the DNA engineering to plants where it may annoy the vegetarians, but we don't need be cruel to animals and we don't need to treat them worse than we do now. Anyone who cannot eat meat should either seek treatment, eat artificial meat, meat replacements or become a vegetarian. To genetically modify animals, breed and grow them in farms, just so we can finally eat them seems a bit decadent to me and a sign of us losing our roots and of us no longer fitting into our natural environment. I'm not content

  • They're called "pigoons" (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pigoon). And it doesn't end well.

  • I won't see these in Europe.

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